This collection of posts features in-depth perspectives about heroes and villains and the people who love them. These articles represent the professional and personal opinions of Dr. Andrea Letamendi, a Clinical Psychologist, scientist, and convention speaker.

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The Arkham Sessions Podcast, Episode #100: “The Lego Batman Movie”

March 24th, 2017 by Andrea

The show takes a momentary detour to celebrate our 100th episode by deconstructing the latest Batman film, THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE (2017). In this episode, we highlight some of the most compelling psychological themes present in the movie, including Batman’s isolationism, his emotional dependency on The Joker, and his reluctance to connect with his newly adopted son, Robin (Dick Grayson). Based on what we see in the film’s story, a psychologist might be concerned about Batman’s tendencies to act impulsively, to endanger himself and others, to make frantic efforts to avoid loss or abandonment, and to suffer chronic feelings of emptiness. For the first time, we introduce the therapeutic concept, “dialectical,” which means the synthesis or integration of opposites, and how this concept is part of an intervention that might actually help Bruce Wayne. Overall, the film offers us so many essential and universal lessons in emotional growth, including what happens when we “protect” ourselves by being alone. The film also normalizes and opens dialogue about the different ways we deal with personal loss and trauma. It’s hard to believe it’s “just a kid’s Lego movie.” We highly recommend you see the film –and don’t forget to come back and listen to our analysis!

The Arkham Sessions is a podcast [typically] dedicated to the psychology of the show, Batman: The Animated Series. Have psychology related questions about Batman? Write to us via twitter @ArkhamSessions or on Facebook.

And don’t forget to subscribe to The Arkham Sessions on iTunes to get all the latest episodes!